The Berejiklian government's crackdown on 'shonks' that never happened

Ten months after the Berejiklian government passed laws it said would “clean up” the residential construction industry and “give confidence to the community and home buyers”, those laws have still not gone into effect.

The delay was seized upon during a debate in NSW Parliament on Tuesday, after which the state opposition accused the government of forgetting it had passed legislation.

NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler and NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation Kevin Anderson at Parliament House.Credit:AAP

In October, the NSW Parliament passed the Building and Development Certifiers Bill. The bill provided new powers for state agencies to monitor the behaviour of participants in the building industry, and cancel the registration of private certifiers offending conduct provisions.

It also included provisions to ensure certifiers who inspect construction sites and issue development certificates confirming legal requirements have been met, do not have conflicts of interests.

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“We’re closing a number of loopholes that shonks were taking advantage of, under the old legislation, and making it harder for them to rort the system,” Matt Kean, the former minister responsible for building regulation, said in October last year.

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“We want to reinstall public faith in the work of certifiers because they have a very important job, and that’s exactly why we’re cracking down on the industry,” Mr Kean said.

But the changes to be introduced by the legislation touted by Mr Kean have not yet been introduced. They will only come into effect when the government proclaims them as such – an administrative step that it has not taken.

Mr Kean’s successor as Better Regulation Minister, Kevin Anderson, said through a spokesman on Tuesday: “The proclamation of the bill which tidies up Labor’s messy regulation of the industry requires extensive writing of regulation, some of which will now be effected by the NSW government’s greater reforms to the building and construction industry.”